


Not So Ordinary After All

by WinglessCrows



Series: Through the Eyes of a Cook [24]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Friendship, Set Before Whole Cake Island
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 02:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14251521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinglessCrows/pseuds/WinglessCrows
Summary: Sanji is used to protecting the crew from unknown dangers, but tonight he gets a bit of help from a perhaps unwanted party





	1. Chapter 1

Sanji was listening. At first it hadn't been intentional, but as he slowly understood what they were talking about he was glad he'd caught their conversation. At first Sanji hadn't picked up on the importance of the conversation, simply because he thought that there was no way anyone would be stupid enough to have a conversation like that in a public place. But then Sanji realized. They weren't speaking in the common tongue. Sanji was surprised that he hadn't noticed before, because the language was quite different from the common one. But even after years of not using it, Sanji could still perfectly understand.

Sanji dared not look too much in their direction so he settled for only listening. There were eight of them; three women and five men. It seemed that only one woman could speak the language fluently, leading Sanji to believe that she was either their boss or their client. She was the one explaining their job, so it could be either really. As the others spoke Sanji picked up on every broken sentence and mispronounced word, trying to figure out who they were. After listening for a while he decided that they must be business people. People who only knew enough of the language to communicate with a client and nothing more.

Sanji felt someone shift besides him, but ignored it. There was a good possibility that these people could pose a serious threat. Sanji took a look at them as a waitress approached them. They seemed to be placing some orders, which meant that they'd stay for a little while longer at the very least. Sanji wanted to hear more. He quickly looked away as the woman in charge turned her head in his direction. They continued talking.

"Sanji-kun..." Nami's voice came from somewhere in the room, and Sanji turned to look at her, not knowing what she wanted, "Are you even listening?"

"Huh?" Sanji answered intelligently and she face palmed, making Usopp explain to him what was going on.

"Nami said that the island will change seasons soon, and we should leave before it does. Do you have all the supplies you need?"

"Um, yeah, I have everything..." Sanji said automatically, but then reconsidered, "Actually, I still have a few things I want to buy, so I'll go into town later today."

"Alright..." Usopp said sceptically, but apparently decided not to pry into it.

Sanji went back to listening. He must have missed something, because they had changed subject. He hoped it wasn't important, but shot them another quick glance just to make sure nothing had changed. How strange. The woman in charge was gone. Maybe she  _was_ their client and she had finished explaining what she wanted them to do. However, not five seconds later, Sanji's attention was caught when someone arrived at the table. It seemed the woman hadn't left after all.

"Hello~" She said and all the strawhats' attention was instantly on her, "You're not from around here, are you?" She spoke the common tongue, but her accent was thick giving Sanji the impression that she was either faking it or exaggerating it.

"No, we're just stopping by," Nami smiled. Her guard was up, but there was no hint of suspicion in her voice, "Why?"

"Ah~" The woman sang and leaned over the table. She was a little too close to Luffy in Sanji's mind, but if she was dangerous, Sanji did not doubt that his captain would pick up on it. Looking closer she was quite pretty, but Sanji found it hard to focus on that, "My friends and I were stopping by as well, and we were wondering if you knew what the next summer island was? You see, I'm not too fond of winter."

"The previous island was a summer island, was it not?" Robin said, looking to Nami who agreed with her and gave her the name of the island.

"Thank you very much~" The woman clapped her hands, and returned to her table.

After that their conversation turned trivial and Sanji knew there was nothing more to come for. Nami was paying the bill anyway, so they'd be leaving soon.

Sanji sighed and looked to his friends. None of them seemed to bothered by the woman, but then again, they hadn't heard the conversation. As Sanji eyes scanned the table his gaze met Zoro's. The swordsman was very quick to pick up on Sanji's expression and lifted an eyebrow in question. Sanji brushed it off. If he needed help, he would let someone know... and that someone would not be Zoro. The swordsman mimicked him and sighed. Sanji didn't know whether that meant  _fine I don't care_ or  _whatever I trust you._ As much as Sanji would hope it was the latter, he had a weird feeling it was the first.

The strawhats slowly made their way back to the Sunny. The mood was light, and they walked slowly, sometimes stopping if they went past something particularly interesting. When they finally got back to their ship everyone had their hands full of different things. Most carried food, a few carried weapons or general supplies. Robin and Chopper had stumbled upon a small book store, and with all the purchases, Sanji was surprised to see that Nami was still as happy as she had been this morning.

After Sanji had stored all the food, he stepped out of the kitchen and looked at the sky. It wouldn't be too long until the sun set and he quite wanted to leave before it did. Anything else would seem suspicious. He had prepared dinner early and he was sure the crew could fend for themselves should he leave for a few hours. He quickly let them know that he was going back to town to get some last minute supplies and left the ship.

The town was still lively, and Sanji quite enjoyed just walking amongst all people going about their daily life. He did stop once or twice at some food stances, but he never bought anything. He wasn't really out for shopping. If he remembered correctly, he shouldn't be too far from the place, and when he started seeing less people, he figured he was right. When Sanji reached the edge of the town he tried to keep to alleys and rooftops. The last thing he needed was to be spotted.

Sanji watched from a rooftop as the sun set. He could see the Sunny in the distance and he smiled to himself. He didn't do this a lot, and it wasn't a complete secret either. Both Zoro and Robin had caught and confronted him once about it, but even after that they never tried to stop him. Sanji was sure that a few others, if not every single one of them knew he did this, but it wasn't something they talked about. Simply because pretty much everyone once or twice had snuck off to deal with a threat that only they had been aware of, and while Sanji just happened to be the person to deal with most of those threats, it was okay. Sanji wasn't exactly underestimating his friends nor overestimating himself. He had asked for help twice. Once from Usopp and once from Robin. The reason he always did this alone was mostly to not worry the others, but also because he knew that bringing all the strawhats into minor conflicts could easily go out of hand.

The strawhats liked big fights. They were exciting, and people would never forget them, but sometimes big fights weren't needed. Sometimes you just needed a bit of discreet meddling, and the threat was eliminated. Sanji was the perfect person to do this. He was strong and could stand his own, but unlike their idiot captain and their idiot swordsman, Sanji had a brain. Besides, Sanji got a weird feeling of satisfaction when he could outsmart and win against his enemies without engaging in a physical fight. It was like a fun game. Of course, it didn't always work out that way, but Sanji had never even been injured in a solo-mission.

He didn't let any of that get to his head though. He knew that he was dealing with different people each time and there really was no telling how smart they were. Sanji was actually a little on edge with this particular group. They'd been smart enough to talk about their plans in a language which was understood by almost no one, and even then Sanji knew that he didn't know everything... Though he really doubted that they knew he'd been listening.

Sanji was currently observing a warehouse. What was inside it, he didn't know, and he honestly didn't really care. What he did care about were the people who were now slowly approaching said warehouse. The woman who had approached them earlier was with them, so Sanji ended up settling for her being the boss. They all entered the warehouse, and Sanji slowly followed. He jumped to the roof of the house, landed silently and slipped in through a ceiling window. As luck would have it, the ceiling consisted mostly of metal bars nicely hidden in shadows, which gave Sanji free mobility as long as he could remain silent.

The warehouse was completely full. If these boxes were stacked any higher they might just have crushed the boxes on bottom unless they all contained nothing but rocks. One of the guys in their party made a quiet  _wow_ sound, while a girl in the back rolled her eyes at him. The two of them were definitely the youngest in the group, probably around sixteen, which gave Sanji a reason to believe that they were either new recruits who posed zero threat or people with powerful abilities who posed the greatest threat.

"Let's get to work," Their boss commanded, this time speaking in the common tongue. Her accent wasn't nearly as thick as it had been back in the restaurant, but it was still slightly present in her words. The young boy from before moved forward and touched one of the boxes and... it disappeared? Sanji's eyes widened. What? One of the guys was holding a big bag and it looked like the boy put something inside it. The boy then touched another box, but this time Sanji saw what happened. The box didn't disappear, it just shrunk. Well, that answered a few questions.

When about half of the contents of the warehouse had been shrunk and put into the bag, the boss signalled to the people who were not on watch to do something. The young girl moved to the wall and started spray painting it. It looked like she was painting a skull... The rest of them seemed to be spreading some sort of dust all over the place, while their boss was standing over them, telling them whenever they did something wrong.

"Um, miss?" One of the dust spreaders slowly asked, and she looked to him, giving him permission to speak, "What does this do again?"

"It will lead the government away from us," she answered. She seemed quite level headed and not the type to yell or get annoyed at her probably below average intelligent subordinates, "This dust is connected to my ability. It will lead the government away from us and directly to the strawhats."  _Ah, there is was, the reason Sanji needed to deal with these people._

Her subordinate seemed to be satisfied with the answer, and while Sanji wanted to know more about how exactly it worked, it didn't take him long to figure out that it wasn't coincidence that she had been standing that close to Luffy earlier. Sanji was willing to bet his life that she had done something back then. Well, nothing to do about that now. Sanji needed to find a way for the strawhats not to become a sudden target. The government didn't like them to begin with. They were pirates and they had done a lot of things to piss of the government, but Sanji quite liked when the marines didn't know where they were. Not even the strawhats would survive long if they were pursued constantly, and Sanji had a feeling that the woman's ability might make that happen.

Sanji then shot a glance at the girl who was painting and wasn't surprised when it looked like she was painting  _their_ jolly roger. These people were trying a little bit too hard to frame them for whatever crime they were committing. Now, Sanji had a choice. Did he want to let them get away with what they were doing and then just make sure that the government couldn't track them by removing whatever the hell the dust was and clean the walls. Or did he want to stop them from committing a crime, so that the government wouldn't  _have_ to track anyone down. The first one was tempting, but Sanji didn't know what half of these people were capable of and with three women, one of which was probably extremely strong, Sanji didn't want to engage in a fight.

"Just tell me if you need any help," a low voice came from Sanji's left, and he almost jumped from surprise.

"What are  _you_ doing here?" Sanji hissed, trying his best not to raise his voice.

"Nothing in particular," Zoro said casually and looked at the people working beneath them, "but if it comes down to a fight you'll be happy I'm here." Zoro gave Sanji a sly smile, and Sanji would have kicked him if they wouldn't have been found out.

"I can handle this myself," Sanji said and turned away from the swordsman, "Why did you even come?"

"Luffy sent me," Zoro answered and Sanji immediately looked back to him again.

"Really?" Sanji could hardly believe that Luffy wouldn't trust Sanji with something like this. Enjoying Sanji's distressed expression, Zoro waited a little too long to explain what he had meant.

"He just wanted you to buy more food. Nami said the voyage will be long, so we need more supplies than usual."

"Oh..." Sanji said silently, and went back to watching the group of people beneath them. There were almost no boxes left, so Sanji had to start acting soon if he wanted to do something more than just erase proof.

Sanji sighed. He knew he wouldn't feel right if he just let these people get away with this. He felt like it'd be an insult to Luffy. Sanji looked to Zoro again, though the swordsman had his gaze on the thieves. He then noticed that Zoro was only carrying his white sword, which probably meant that even Zoro wasn't in the mood to start a big spectacular fight.

Sanji was a bit disappointed that it all ended up in a fight, but he wasn't really in the mood to start erasing the trails that would lead anyone to their crew and then replace them with things that would lead them to the actual culprits instead. It seemed like a waste of time, especially if Sanji wouldn't even be there to witness as they got hunted down. He signalled to Zoro and they emerged from their hiding spot.

The fight was pretty short, and not really all that taxing either. The youngest two didn't even join the battle, and when Zoro had dealt with the women (gently as Sanji had kept on yelling at him), he had just sat back and watched as Sanji took out the rest. Sanji had gotten quite annoyed with the swordsman at that point and kicked a guy in his direction when he saw him yawn.

When they'd finished up, they tied them all up, left and locked the warehouse. Sanji made sure to keep a close eye on Zoro in case he should wander off and be lost the entire night. While Sanji didn't really care that much, Luffy probably did, and Sanji personally did not want to go on a midnight marimo hunt, when he could just keep an eye on him. They made it to the main street in time to buy the extra supplies before the shops closed and they were now a ten minute walk from the Sunny.

"Say..." Zoro said suddenly not looking at Sanji.

"Hmm?"

"Are you hiding something from us?" Zoro continued walking, but Sanji had stopped dead in his tracks.

"What do you mean?" Sanji asked, slightly confused.

"Those people... How did you know what they would do, where they would be?"

"I just overheard their conversation," Sanji said and began walking again, but this time Zoro didn't follow.

"In a different language? That's not something you  _just_ do."

"And how would an idiot like you know?" Sanji snapped. He wasn't sure why he was angry, but he suspected it was because it was Zoro he was having a conversation with.

Zoro sighed, and continued walking. Neither of them said anything for a while.

"I don't really care..." Zoro said again, and Sanji wasn't even sure what he referring to, "and I know Luffy doesn't really care either, but you shouldn't hide too many secrets from us."

"Huh?" Sanji exclaimed, confused.

Zoro stopped and looked at Sanji who was beyond confused. Sure, he had secrets, but they were mainly connected to his past which hadn't even remotely been an issue in his currently life for a long long time.

And then Zoro's eye slightly widened as it looked like he realized something incredible, "You don't even know, do you?"

Sanji was sure that he was looking like a pure question mark at this point, but then something rare happened: Zoro started laughing. It wasn't the short mocking laugh Zoro made when he was teasing him, but a genuine laugh which Sanji found he really enjoyed. Possibly because he generally just liked people laughing out of happiness, but mostly because Zoro rarely laughed.

"Care telling me what's so funny?" Sanji asked after a while, and watched as Zoro slowly stopped laughing.

"Nah, I don't want to give you the satisfaction," Zoro said and this time smiled a victorious smile in Sanji's direction before he started walking again.

"Oi!" Sanji yelled and aimed a kick at the swordsman who dodged effortlessly like he had done so many times. Sanji would have started a fight right then and there if it had not been for Luffy's voice calling their names in the distance. They fight would have to wait.


	2. Chapter 2

Sanji was lying on his back, panting hard. He was completely exhausted and he honestly did not want to move away from this very comfortable spot on deck. He could hear the heavy breathings of both Luffy and Zoro somewhere not too far away. He was sure the others were exhausted as well, but they were all a little further away, scattered around the ship. This had been the third marine attack that day, and it was beginning to have an effect.

To make it short: Sanji had fucked up. And he totally blamed Zoro. However irrational it might seem, he blamed Zoro. He blamed Zoro for having randomly appeared and disturbed his thought process that night. Sanji never made mistakes, if he did there would be no point in his solo-missions, but this time he had made a mistake... all because of that stupid swordsman. He hoped Zoro knew that he was to blame, but the idiot had no brain and probably hadn't even put two and two together.

Basically, after having beaten up the people in the warehouse, Sanji (and Zoro) had  _not_ destroyed evidence that they had been there nor made sure that they could no longer be followed. Sanji was sure that the group they had beat up had pleaded with whoever government officials had come for them and then given them the necessary means to track strawhat Luffy.

However strong the strawhats were, there really was a limit to how many attacks they could take in a row, and, as unfortunate as it was, they couldn't keep using  _coup de burst_  to get away. They simply didn't have the fuels. So now they had to live with high level battles multiple times a day.

When the first attack had occurred, Sanji hadn't thought twice about it. They were pirates. Marine attacks were kind of an occupational hazard. The second time Sanji simply assumed that the team from earlier had given the information of their whereabouts to every marine base in the area. However, when they after the second attack had changed their course and got attacked again, Sanji suspected that something was up. The next day had been the same; three consecutive marine attacks, which no amount of zig-zag-not-following-the-log-pose sailing could stop. It was getting tiring to say the least.

Now they were on their fourth day, and Sanji was at a loss for what to do. Sanji was certain that if they could hold the marines off for long enough then the tracking on Luffy would wear off, but they might just lose a fight before that happened. Sanji had half expected that the effect would wear off after three days, but it hadn't, so now he was gunning for five days, which meant that, hopefully, this whole ordeal would be over soon.

He had proof that this was the case as well. The first three days the marines had attacked three times a day. Morning, noon and evening, but today, on the fourth day and the fifth day of the magical tracking, the marines had attacked three times when noon arrived. Sanji could tell. They were getting desperate. If today truly was their last chance then they only had a few more hours to work with, and ever since Sanji had started putting things together he had made sure to deal a lot of damage to their ships in order to keep the marines from following them. But that didn't really make this any easier.

Sanji slowly gathered the energy to sit up and looked around. He had the perfect meal in mind to help a weakened crew, but he honestly didn't have the energy to start that big of a project... but he forced himself to do it anyway. They needed to be prepared for the next attack which Sanji predicted would come within two hours...

And sure enough, two hours and a refreshing meal later, the Sunny was once again a battlefield. Usopp, Franky and Brook were taking care of the surrounding ships, while the rest of the strawhats fought to keep the marines from killing or taking anyone. In a messy situation like this, Sanji trusted his friends to take care of themselves... or scream if they needed help, and focused on his own opponents. There were very few marines who could stand up to Sanji for more than ten seconds, but they had numbers to their advantage, while the strawhats were dealing with complete exhaustion. And while this group of marines seemed a little on the weak side, Sanji quickly noticed something.

Generally when a big group of marines came for them, it seemed that they randomly charged at them with large numbers, while some of the stronger marines would take on Luffy and Zoro. This usually gave Sanji a lot of leeway as he was always completely underestimated, but this batch of marines were completely different. The strategy for dealing with Luffy seemed to be mostly the same. There were about three people surrounding him, all of whom seemed to be just at the weaker end of vice-admiral level. Normally, this shouldn't face Luffy, but Sanji had noticed that Luffy had tried very hard to take on more and more enemies over the last few days to allow the rest of the crew to relax, if just a little bit. So while Luffy still stood the strongest, he was also the one suffering from these attacks the most. Still, Sanji was sure he'd do fine, and if he needed it, Zoro was not even three metres away from his captain... Though it seemed that the swordsman was struggling more with his opponents than Luffy was with his... which was somewhat irregular.

While Luffy always dealt with the stronger enemies, Zoro always seemed to struggle just a little less than their lovable captain, but Sanji could understand what was causing the swordsman trouble. Zoro, more often than not, fought fellow swordsmen, who were often powered up by a weird devil fruit. And for Zoro who was aiming to become the best swordsman in the world, these people rarely posed too much of a challenge because of his experience and power. But this time Zoro was not fighting swordsmen or even weapon users. His opponents seemed to be mostly quick, martial artists, which really was what Zoro struggled with the most.

Sanji himself was now the one dealing with the swordsmen, which just so happened to be his achilles heel. All of Sanji's long ranged attacks involved fire, and on the Sunny he could not use those techniques, which meant he had to get close to his opponents to deal any sort of damage... but swordsmen were hard to get close to, especially the good ones. The only saving grace which both Zoro and Sanji benefited from was their regular fights. While their arguments and stupid fights didn't have much merit because their attacks had no thoughts behind them, they did have one daily sparring session which allowed them to deal with their respective weaknesses.

However, with fatigue peaking and having multiple swordsmen constantly attacking him, Sanji kind of wished he could switch positions with Zoro... but that was a stupid thought, and Sanji knew he had to deal with these people no matter what.

And so, putting his trust in his friends, Sanji stopped paying attention to anything but his enemies, and in a state of complete concentration, a flip in Sanji was flipped. As if eight years of suppressed training was suddenly remembered, Sanji's moves changed. He could put himself in the body of these swordsmen, predict their moves based on the sword they used, the power they had, the quality of their footwork, and Sanji's own habits and fighting capabilities. He wouldn't touch a sword, but he could vividly remember how it felt to wield the weapon. Sometimes it wasn't even that different to using kitchen knives, but he couldn't let similarities distract him.

Sanji moved swiftly among his enemies, dodging and attacking with a new found finesse. He wasn't even completely sure what he was doing, it was like he was in some sort of trance. But it worked. Once the last marine fell to his knees and lost consciousness, Sanji slowly pulled himself back to reality and glanced in the direction of Luffy and Zoro. Both seemed to have wrapped up their fights pretty easily, but Zoro was the one who caught his attention. From his glare, Sanji knew he'd been watching him for a while, but it was the little knowing smile and cocky head lift which pissed Sanji off the most. He didn't even know what the hell Zoro was thinking anymore, but it annoyed Sanji to no end and he kicked a downed marine out of frustration.

And then Zoro laughed again. It wasn't as much as the night after their little mission, but just as back then, Zoro seemed genuinely amused by something which Sanji definitely did not understand. Sanji mumbled something about making food to no one and angrily left for the kitchen. The others would clean up the mess, and he'd have a meal ready for them when they were done.

Sanji entered the kitchen, put on his apron, found the ingredients and picked up his favourite kitchen knife. For a second a chill went down his spine, but he shrugged it off an began cooking.


End file.
